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HISTORY The show began on song by Barry White called "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me" was played on ''American Top 40'' for time compression reasons), and by the early 1980s , the show could be heard on more than 500 stations in the United States alone. Based on the success of American Top 40, Kasem and Don Bustany created a spinoff top 40 countdown for Watermark for Country Radio called '''" American Country Countdown "''', patterned after Kasem's program. "ACC" (as the show is referred to by fans) premiered in 1973, and has been hosted by radio personality Bob Kingsley from 1978 until 2005. There was also a TV version of '''American Top 40''' hosted by Kasem and later Siedah Garrett and Tommy Puett called '''" America's Top 10 "''' that aired in syndication from 1980 to 1992 . Occasionally, between 1971 and 1991 , American Top 40 would air special countdowns mostly in place of the regular American Top 40 countdown show. Among them: "The National Album Countdown" (1972), "The Top 40 Disappearing Acts" (1973), "The #1 July 4th. Songs of the Last 40 Years" (1976), "AT40 Goes to the Movies" (1978), "The Top 40 Disco Songs" (1979), "The AT40 Book of Records" (1980), "The Top 40 Acts of the 1980's So Far" (1983), and "The Triathlon of Rock 'n Roll" (1988). There have been also the annual American Top 40 year-end countdowns of the Top 100 songs of the year mostly spread over two weeks or in an 8 hour format. In 1982 Watermark Inc. was purchased by ABC Radio Networks . In 1988 , Kasem left the show due to contract concerns with ABC. His last show aired on August 6 , 1988. Kasem was replaced by Shadoe Stevens , whose first ''American Top 40'' show aired on August 13 , 1988. Kasem went on to join the Westwood One radio network and start a rival show, '' Casey's Top 40 '', less than a year later. Many listeners were upset by Kasem's departure and, as a result, many stations dropped ''American Top 40'' in favor of ''Casey's Top 40'' once it hit the airwaves in early 1989 . (Casey's Top 40 was based on the CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio)/Pop tracks chart in ''Radio & Records'' magazine.) During Kasem's run as host of the show, there were several features. The most famous was the Long Distance Dedication , which had evolved from a song that Kasem had recorded in the mid 60s. The Long Distance Dedication feature began 2 months before the show expanded to 4 hours in 1978. Most shows featured 2 LDDs. This feature endured on AT40 into Shadoe Stevens' run as host of the show and has also followed Casey (first as the "Request and Dedication") on his Westwood One shows and then back as the LDD when he returned to AT40 in 1998. AT40 also featured several question letters a show, where a listener would write asking a chart trivia question. Sometimes these letters led to an extra being played, though this became less common as songs got longer in the 1980s. Also in 1978 after the show expanded to 4 hours, the first 3 hours ended each hour with the "AT40 Archives" segment that spotlighted in order a #1 song of the past. From October 1978 to June 1980 the #1 songs of the 1970's were featured in the "AT40 Archives", and from June 1980 to November 1981 the #1 songs of the 1960's were featured in the "AT40 Archives". The "AT40 Archives" feature was gone by the end of 1981. Finally, each show would often have "stretch" stories, which were stories told before playing a song that sometimes barely related to the song itself. Also, beginning in early 1979, a recap of the previous week's top 3 songs started off each AT40 episode. As the show started to lose stations once Shadoe Stevens took over, several other features were tried, including interview clips, music news, top 5 flashbacks, and previews of upcoming chart hits (called the "AT40 Sneak Peek"). Also: ''American Top 40'' had to switch chart formats twice: First in November . Despite these efforts, ''American Top 40'' was cancelled in the USA in July 1994 (when then owner ABC withdrew the show and acquired the rights to rival Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 ) and was cancelled for good on the remaining foreign markets still carrying the show on January 28 , 1995 , before the foreign markets replaced it with a similar format called The World Chart Show . ''American Top 40'' was revived on March 28 , 1998 when Casey Kasem again was involved in a dispute. As the rights to the "American Top 40" name reverted back to Kasem, he pitched the idea to Westwood One to rename "Casey's Top 40" to the AT40 name. Westwood One refused him this, and as a result, Casey took himself and the AT40 name to AM/FM Radio syndication (which was adsorbed into Premiere Radio Networks in 1999 ). The returned ''American Top 40'' kept the ''Radio and Records'' CHR/Pop chart previously used for "Casey's Top 40" and was used as the basis except for the period of October 2000 to August 2001 when the Mediabase charts were used for ''American Top 40'' chart usage. In addition, two '' American Top 20 '' shows were created; one based on the Hot Adult Contemporary format and the other based on the Adult Contemporary format (much like Westwood One's "Casey's Hot 20" and "Casey's Countdown" programs), both hosted by Kasem. As a result, Westwood One, still committed to do one more show after Kasem left, plopped in a fill-in host ( John Tesh for the AC version, David Perry for the Hot AC version, and Jeff Wyatt for the Top 40 version) and simply called their final show "The Top 40 Countdown" or "The Hot 20 Countdown" or "The Top 20 Countdown". From January 2001 to December 2002 many radio stations (mostly 1980's leaning and Hot AC radio stations) aired reruns of 1980-1988 Casey Kasem hosted ''American Top 40'' episodes under the title "American Top 40 Flashbacks". In its early weeks the shows were the original 4 hour format of an ''American Top 40'' episode, but after the first month and a half the show was reduced to 3 hours starting with the second hour of the original ''American Top 40'' show. Even though "American Top 40 Flashbacks" ceased in December 2002 , Columbus, Ohio radio station WMMX still airs the 2001-2002 produced "American Top 40 Flashbacks" on Saturday mornings. The AC version of AT20 became "American Top 10" in the Spring of 2004 featuring the top 10 AC songs of the week and a "Spotlight" feature in which Kasem plays songs with a common theme. In December, AT10 focuses on Christmas Music due to the fact that many of its affiliates broadcast a Holiday/Christmas music format around the Holiday Season. On January 10 , 2004 , Ryan Seacrest took over the hosting duties of ''American Top 40'' from Kasem, although Kasem would continue to host ''American Top 20'' and ''American Top 10''. Around this time, ''American Top 40'' used no recurrent rule so that songs like "In Da Club" by 50 Cent and "Scars" by Papa Roach could spend long runs for about a year on the chart even after they went to recurrent status. Also, ''American Top 40'' became more interactive, involving online song voting and E-mail s being read on-air. The Long Distance Dedication segments are no longer a feature on AT40 but continue to be a key featured on the Kasem hosted AT20/10. In December 2004 Premiere began to offer a Hot AC version of the Ryan Seacrest hosted AT40. American Top 40 is produced and engineered by Claudine Cazian and Sal Cocio. Another aspect of the show that makes it unique is the fact that a new show must be produced every week, regardless of any circumstances. This means that occasionally a substitute host must fill in for Ryan (and Casey on American Top 20/10). Substitutes for Ryan have been famous music celebrities that have included Hilary Duff , Kelly Clarkson , Gavin DeGraw , Pamela Anderson , Jesse McCartney , and Nick Lachey . In Casey's 35 years at the mic of the various countdown shows, he has more often than not had a well-known disc jockey take the reins for the week rather than a celebrity (although there were a few exceptions). Some of the most known guest hosts for him have been Charlie Van Dyke , Marc Elliot , Ed McMann (not the Tonight Show sidekick), David Perry , "Humble Harv" Miller , Dave Hull , Bob Eubanks , Keri Tombazian , Dick Clark , Al Mitchell , Dave Roberts , Bumper Morgan , Robert W. Morgan , Gary Owens , Sonny Melendez , the 80's pop duo of Hall And Oates , Pat O'Brien , Ryan Seacrest (his guest hosting appearances eventually led to his taking over of AT40), and most recently on the weekend of October 8-9 2005, legendary Los Angeles radio personality Charlie Tuna (who was also the announcer for the America's Top 10 TV show) substituted for Casey Kasem on American Top 20 and American Top 10. Shadoe Stevens ' guest hosts for his American Top 40 reign have included Debbie Gibson (the youngest to guest host American Top 40), Donny Osmond , Matthew And Gunnar Nelson , Richard Marx , Jody Watley , Martha Quinn , Harry Anderson , Mescach Taylor , and Joe Cirprano and Adrienne Walker (who would both later host for foreign markets The World Chart Show which replaced American Top 40 after it ceased for a 3 year hiatus in 1995 ). TRIVIA
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